1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an ink container with a storage means for storing predetermined information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, a removable ink container has been used in a stencil printer since it is easy to handle. When ink in the container has been consumed, the container is removed from the stencil printer to be discarded or recycled and a new ink container is mounted on the stencil printer. In such ink containers, there has been proposed, for instance, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10(1998)-133529, an ink container in which a storage means such as a memory IC is provided and the ink consumption and/or the dates of use in the stencil printer are stored. By reading out the ink consumption and/or the dates of use stored in the storage means, the state of use and or the like of the stencil printer can be known and used.
In the method proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,519, information on viscosity and/or color of ink accommodated in the ink container is stored in a memory IC and the stencil printer controls the press pressure during printing on the basis of the information on viscosity and/or color of ink accommodated in the ink container. Further, there has been proposed a method in which the remainder of ink in the container is stored in a memory IC and an alarm is given when the remainder of ink in the container is minimized.
However, the ink container disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10(1998)-133529 is disadvantageous in that since the storage means is embedded in the ink container body, it is difficult to separate the storage means from the ink container body when the empty ink containers are discarded or recycled. The ink container disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,519 is provided with a circuit board which carries a memory IC and directly bonded to the ink container body. Also, in this ink container, it is difficult to separate the memory IC from the ink container body and separation of the memory IC by force can result in damage on the memory IC depending on the state of bonding of the circuit board to the ink container body.